Sounds like drama is on the horizon for Maggie! On that note: any developments in the love triangle between Maggie, Don and Jim this season?

Maggie’s story with Don and Jim this season is much less than in season one.

It seems guys like Don, always end up winning the sweet and innocent Maggies of the world. Do you think Maggie in some way needs to date Don first in order to appreciate Jim?

People and love are inexplicable.

That definitely rings true for more than one of your past characters, including Mairead in The Lieutenant of Inishmore. You earned a Tony nomination for that one. Is theatre acting your first passion, or is it pretty much on par with your passion for film and television?

Theatre is much harder and more tiring. It is a great and all-encompassing mistress, and therefore maybe too intense to do all the time. But it is an enduring love.

Fair enough. It has though been a while since you were on stage; your last theatre performance was in The House of Blue Leaves back in 2011. Are you itching to get back to it?

I want to do another play soon, but it may just be me in a basement somewhere.

What’s your dream theatre role?

Too many to count. I want to do Hamlet, Nina in the Seagull, later I want to do Beckett’s Happy Days.

What’s the draw with these rolls?

The roles are incredible, and people want to do them for a reason: they’re impossible to get right. What’s the fun otherwise?

Good point! You’re originally from Canada. Do you ever find yourself getting a little homesick while in LA?

I miss certain things definitely, but people here are much nicer than they’re given credit for.

What are your thoughts on the national arts scene back home? It’s gone through a boom over the last few years, but yet it seems like the true marker of success for Canadian talent — in the eyes of the Canadian arts industry and its audience — is still making it in the US.

[The US] is a bigger market by a long shot, and people still come here from all over to be in movies and plays. I think some element of protectionism is needed to grow the industry more in Canada, and government support of institutions like CBC and CFB needs to continue and increase for greater international success. In South Korea and England for example, government support has led to a much bigger global footprint in the arts.

And you think that’s possible for Canada?

I think Canadian movies and TV and theatre should be made and exported, but to get it done, a market at home needs to be built a bit better.